Santa Barbara catches Con Lima in Belmont Oaks
ELMONT, N.Y. - Ryan Moore had a ton of horse, he just needed some room to allow Santa Barbara to run. A hole materialized in midstretch and, with just some semi-vigorous hand riding from Moore, Santa Barbara unleashed a monster kick and ran down Con Lima to win the Grade 1, $700,000 Belmont Oaks Invitational by a half-length at Belmont Park on Saturday.
According to Moore the margin of victory belies the ease in which the victory was accomplished.
“She won without me moving a muscle,” Moore said.
It was only Santa Barbara’s second career victory from five starts, but she had run in three consecutive Group 1 races before Saturday. Most recently, she fell a neck shy of the 4-year-old Thundering Nights, who was just beaten a nose in the Grade 2 New York Stakes here June 4.
“Look, I think she had a class edge on them,” Moore said.
Santa Barbara was fifth, about 3 1/2 lengths behind Con Lima, who, under Flavien Prat, set pedestrian fractions of 24.71 seconds for the quarter, 51.31 for the half and 1:16.40. Spanish Loveaffair and Higher Truth were stalking Con Lima.
Turning for home, the field bunched up even more and at one point Moore had to take up Santa Barbara to move her out a path. When he did, the horses in front of him were still moving forward, and Moore was able to slide Santa Barbara on through. When Moore asked, Santa Barbara responded, getting up in the final four strides.
“She’s got a good turn of foot,” Moore said.
Santa Barbara, a daughter of Camelot owned by the Coolmore connections of Susan Magnier, Michael Tabor, Derrick Smith as well as Georg von Opel’s Westerberg operation and is trained by Aidan O’Brien, covered the 1 1/4 miles over good ground in 2:03.76. She returned $4.30 as the favorite.
“She’s been used to faster ground, she probably took a while to pick up today on that slow ground,” said T.J. Comerford, assistant to O’Brien. “I’m sure that was a good performance for her.”
It was also a good performance from Con Lima, who was allowed to dictate the pace and held off all comers but one.
“We got the trip we were hoping to get,” said Todd Pletcher, Con Lima's trainer. “She ran on, kept trying and just got nailed by a nice filly.”
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Con Lima finished second by a nose over Higher Truth. Gam’s Mission finshed fourth and was followd, in order, by Plum Ali, Nazuna, Cirona, and Spanish Loveaffair.
Santa Barbara was scheduled to return to Ireland on Sunday night, but Comerford didn’t rule out her returning to the U.S. as early as next month for the Grade 3, $700,000 Saratoga Oaks Invitational on Aug. 8.